Old Man at the Village Gate: "…From my perspective, the development team is playing a big game! All this black screen nonsense is just a setup for the surprises to come!"
Overlord Dragon Emperor: "How do you know it's not just to mess things up?"
Old Man at the Village Gate: "…"
Candied Hawthorn: "Surprise my foot! I'm going online!"
Roasted Lamb Skewers: "I'm on the character creation page! Hurry up and get it ready!"
Excited Gamer: "Exactly! GKD!"
Maple Leaf in Autumn: "Everyone calm down. The game is clearly still in development. What's playable is limited. Honestly, compared to taking the DEMO down, covering the crystal ball with clothing as a transition is actually pretty clever."
Dragon Slayer: "What the hell? You guys actually got in?"
Knowledge Buff: "This has to be fake!"
Rebellious Spirit: "I don't care! If I don't get a helmet, it's a scam! (screaming)"
Maple Leaf in Autumn: "Helmet? You don't need a helmet. Any VR headset will do… (sweating)"
Pig-Head Knight: "Hell yeah! Everyone, log in now!"
Maple Leaf in Autumn: "?!"
Little Late Hungry: "Try tricking me again, and I'll gut you all! (angry)"
On the official Catastrophe Online website, the forum had been in chaos all day since some NPC covered the crystal ball. The development team, however, remained completely silent.
Zhao Jinyan had been observing quietly.
Most forum posts fell into two camps: those who believed the developers had truly made a revolutionary VR MMORPG, and those who thought the trailers were all smoke and mirrors.
With AI tech being all the rage these days, generating videos wasn't hard to fake.
Truthfully, Zhao Jinyan leaned toward the latter. Fully immersive VR MMORPGs seemed far-fetched. Even if such tech existed, who would use it for a game first? Surely there were more profitable applications.
Yet Zhao was surprised. After the internal test keys and DEMO program were released yesterday, some users appeared to have actually played it. Only for a few hours, but their accounts sounded genuine even throwing around terms like "hypnosis theory."
Could these people be AI too?
That was the part that puzzled him most. A game only a few days into promotion, with a seemingly half-baked trailer, had already cultivated a loyal fanbase.
"…Could this game actually be that good?"
After hesitating, Zhao Jinyan finally picked up his phone and bought the cheapest second-hand VR headset online.
Completely real virtual reality MMORPG… he was already investing in it. The development team of Catastrophe Online better not disappoint him.
The busiest streets of Thunderclap City clustered near the southeastern harbor. The further north one went, the more dilapidated it became.
Beyond the city gate, houses leaned against the walls like makeshift cow sheds, and narrow, wrinkled alleys wound through the wide land. Constant war had left these structures in a cycle of build, tear down, rebuild, and the residents human or beast lived in miserable conditions.
Following Lady Chris, Royan soon met her team.
As he expected, these four fierce-looking men were the ones he had seen in the tavern, though here they pretended to be strangers, greeting Royan and Chris warmly, even making crude jokes.
The bald man, Am, was a berserker wielding twin axes, with bronze-level strength.
The others were Rexon, Bond, and Greyhound a black-iron swordsman and two scouts without extraordinary powers.
Top dungeon exploration fighters? Royan, who had spent three years at the Demon King Academy surrounded by silver-level warriors, was slightly disappointed.
"Where's the dungeon entrance? When do we start?"
Royan's eager expression made Chris laugh, teasing him:
"Don't rush. There are many entrances; blindly rushing in will just get you lost. The secret passage we found starts at the northern entrance, and we'll need a cart to get there… Don't you want to drop off your luggage at an inn? I can come with you."
Royan, ever lazy, shook his head.
"No need. I've got supplies in my bag in case anyone gets hurt. I can make potions on the go."
Chris blinked, surprised.
"You can make potions?"
"Of course!" Royan smiled. "I know recipes for healing potions, strength elixirs you name it."
Am laughed, slapping him on the shoulder. "Impressive! I'm starting to like you."
"Overpraised," Royan said with a shy smile, his thumb brushing against a ring inside his fist.
Greyhound, impatient, cut the small talk. "Let's just get going to the Northern Peak Mines."
The driver hesitated.
"At this hour? Up there?"
The southwest was lizardfolk territory, and the northern mountains held undead. Nighttime brought other dangers beyond monsters people with their own dark motives.
"Less chatter. Move!" Greyhound tossed a few silver coins next to the driver's seat.
The party set off. After thirty minutes over bumpy terrain, they reached the dungeon's northern entrance.
Once a famed mining site of the Andes family, the mines had iron and coal veins. But a blasting accident accidentally broke into the dungeon below.
Since then, the mine became home to undead and monsters. Being on the edge, adventurers rarely came here there was little treasure to be found.
The driver refused to go further, so they dismounted at the foot of the mountain. Ten minutes' walk brought them near a sunlit section of the mine, where a dilapidated inn sat.
Royan observed the ruins with curiosity.
"Why doesn't the local lord seal the dungeon entrances if they're such a problem?"
Am laughed. "The underground Demon King isn't stupid. Blocking the entrances would be harder than digging down. Plus, there's something like a core inside the dungeon that can reshape the underground landscape. The Demon King's minions are skilled diggers they've even built a city called Demon Capital deep below."
Chris added, "Luckily, Thunderclap's drainage system keeps the dungeon from spreading into the city proper. At most, it reaches the outskirts we passed earlier."
Royan assessed the situation. The old Demon King's dungeon spanned from the city's northern edge to the Northern Peak Mines. Given traitorous guides, he'd need to expand northward toward the jagged peaks before linking back to the old dungeon.
As Chris led, scouts followed. Royan walked behind Am and Rexon, torch in hand, feeling oddly at home in the mine.
The further they went, the more sinister the air became. Skeletons and half-decayed corpses littered corners.
Royan's face lit with a grin. He had not expected the guides to lead him here this perfect spot for his plans.
From his pocket, he retrieved the Demon King Core, a dark green cubic crystal. To the untrained eye, it looked like a normal faith crystal, but inside lay a millennium of Hell's magical knowledge. Only this could carve a domain in a land bathed by holy light.
Chris and her team, unaware, relaxed.
"Is this far enough? We're not in Saint Xis' territory anymore. Do we really need to go inside the dungeon?" Greyhound asked.
Royan caught Chris hesitating, struggling to remember his name.
"Optimus Prime," he said.
"Optimus Prime? Haha… that's a hard name," Chris laughed awkwardly.
"Not too bad," Royan replied, smirking. He could reveal his full, more complicated name later.
Chris continued, chatting casually. "Have you heard… those who die without faith become homeless undead?"
Royan: "I think so. Why?"
Indeed, in Hell, most mortals, demons, and low-tier fiends lose much of their memory at death, becoming undead. Only clergy of the demon gods survive intact.
Chris continued, oblivious to Royan's amusement. "Poor people, those who can't afford holy burials they end up like that."
Royan finally understood. They weren't after treasure they were testing him.
"Lucky for them, I was going to reward them… but now, they'll just be fodder." He smiled darkly.
Suddenly, Bond fired a flintlock at him.
Bang! Bullets sprayed, but Royan was unfazed.
"Stone Skin Armor," he said calmly.
Chris shivered. Something terrible was coming.
Am charged with axes, Rexon raised his sword but Royan, unseen, brought them down effortlessly, absorbing nothing with his ring.
"Too slow," he muttered, finishing the ritual. The green cubic crystal clinked onto the magic circle traced with his heel.
Creak
A deep gray statue rose from the ground, along with crooked skeletons clutching mining picks.
Bond screamed, throwing the unfinished gun away. The skeletons swiftly made meat out of him.
Greyhound tried to resist but collapsed, paralyzed by power.
Am struggled in vain. Even Chris, terrified, realized the overwhelming power before her.
"You… you're a necromancer?!"
Standing at the center of the pentagram, Royan smiled as his faith grew.
[Faith +1]
[Faith +2]
The taste of fear delicious.
From his pocket, he retrieved a murky crystal ball, admiring the despair on their faces.
"Call me the Demon King."